![]() “If 59th and 3rd is a non-prime location then I suggest he pull out a map,” he said, noting the building’s proximity to Bloomingdales, Bloomberg’s headquarters and Vornado Realty Trust’s luxury condo tower, One Beacon Court.įounded in 2003, Centurion operates both as a traditional development firm and as a fixer of sorts. Tashjian rejected that characterization of the location. “Given the high price of the land, the non-prime location of the real estate, the unit prices was looking to achieve - and given what was going on with all the product on the market, it was just kind of set up for a perfect storm of not being able to sell,” Gerringer said. Over the years, he said, he often wondered what would happen to the project, whose progress appeared slow. He financed the project with a $64 million acquisition loan from Singapore’s United Overseas Bank.Īndrew Gerringer, managing director of new business development at the Marketing Directors, looks out at the site from his office at 59th and Lexington. ![]() Macklowe bought the East 59th Street site, at the southeast corner of Third Avenue, from SL Green in 2014 for $100 million, and paid $2.1 million to buy out a tenant at 989 3rd Avenue. In 2012 the project was taken over by Related Companies and HFZ, who had been competing for the site before they joined forces. Before long they were buried in debt and legal disputes. Demand was high then, but as the housing bubble popped the developers struggled to secure financing to complete the tower - known as One Madison. In one notable case, two inexperienced developers planned a 600-foot tower at 21 East 22nd Street in 2006. ![]() It’s not common for a new sponsor to be brought in midway through a project, but it does happen, particularly when the market weakens. “I think it might have been priced realistically when they underwrote it and priced it,” Tashjian said of the building. ![]() (Per square foot, the decrease was from $3,347 to $2,648.) Further up, a two-bedroom on the 26th floor has been marked down 20 percent, to $5.7 million from $7.1 million. Most significantly, the firm is bringing down prices.Īn updated price list for 14 of the building’s 67 units, filed last Friday with the attorney general’s office, shows an 18 percent overall drop from the original, 2017 asking prices.Īt 15A, the initial asking price of $4.74 million has been slashed to $3.75 million. He is reluctant to criticize his predecessor’s sales strategy - Tashjian remains in regular contact with Macklowe and describes him as a “modern master” - but acknowledged that Centurion has brought back CetraRuddy to make the common areas more welcoming, and has done away with the “whimsical” original marketing campaign that featured elephants and balloons on the building’s signature wrap-around terraces. Still, Tashjian said he sees his task as more of “repositioning” rather than overhauling 200 East 59th Street. Stocks are tumbling and the coronavirus outbreak and presidential election have ramped up uncertainty as the market was already contending with huge amounts of unsold inventory. But selling a condo in today’s climate is a daunting task, even for the steadiest of hands.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |